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It Was Always About the "Right" Politics in Video Games | Unpacked (Patreon)

Published:
2025-11-03 16:30:39
Imported:
2026-06

Content

A new episode of Unpacked is now available!

Files

It Was Always About the "Right" Politics in Video Games | Unpacked

The games industry needs to start collectively standing up. Support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup Second Wind Merch: https://store.dftba.com/collections/second-wind https://sharkrobot.com/collections/second-wind

Comments

Idnex

A basic theater class in high school or university teaches you one of those maxims: “All art is political.” I don’t know why high-school-graduated folks don’t know this. I look forward to watching this.

Sardeed

But not all art pushes one topic and demands the audience to obey and conform.

Idnex

It certainly doesn’t promote ICE. The only thing that matters in this industry is getting paid.

Jason Youngberg

The YT comments equating including marginalized groups with the government using IPs to dehumanized people based on skin color is digusting.

Dread Pirate Mittens

Does the DHS have any marketing data that suggests this tactic even works? Are potential ICE agents coming in and saying, 'Well I used to not agree with you guys, but then I saw those Pokemon and Halo ads. Sign me up'.

Ubersupersloth

Hang on. Why is companies putting progressive messaging in games for advertising/monetary gain fine but them not speaking out against government actions to avoid losing money/attracting negative government attention bad? It’s the same thing. Acting in a way that protects profits. You say “you don’t need to explain the difference” but I genuinely don’t see one.

Ubersupersloth

Yes and no. Any creative’s personal biases will be reflected in the work they produce, even if it’s unconsciously so it is especially rare for a piece of work to represent a politically charged topic without it favouring one side or the other. So it’s not exactly like they’re actively choosing to make the narrative fit “an agenda” (tm) but it can end up like it.

Evan

Did you seriously have to ask yourself that question and can’t figure it out? Maybe I’ll explain. One group of people is mad about big soulless business bandwagoning on progressive messaging. You can decide on whether that makes a difference in the world. Other people are mad about IPs being used to dehumanize people (not everyone in this country illegally is a monster) and those companies staying silent. This should not be forgotten the next time a company takes some sort of progressive “stance” and we should remember your point about it all being about profits. They stand for nothing besides money. Maybe people now have an easier time seeing that they use our love for video games as their preferred way to take our money.

Jason Youngberg

Your choice. Personally I'm torn between keeping it clean and letting people out themselves.

Jason Youngberg

I think that's part of a larger discussion on if advertising works period. We're getting more and more ads on our screens so we have to ask if it's really cost effective or is this a bubble.

Jason Youngberg

It's the government doing it to dehumanize a group of marginalized people. When did progressive messaging do that?

Second Wind

How do you think the "right" would react if DHS posted a meme calling to "destroy" all immigrants from Europe. That should answer your question.

Blake James

Because those profit-protecting actions don't happen in a vacuum. Protecting profits by paying lip service to a good cause you really don't believe in might not be admirable, but it harms no one. America's current descent into fascism is largely fueled by a populace trained on propaganda to fear and dehumanize the "other". Allowing your ammunition (your Global IPs) to be loaded into the regime's biggest gun (dehumanizing propaganda) is an act that will harm, many many people. Put another way - sheathing a weapon is an act of peace, regardless of why you did it. Swinging a sword is a lot more context dependent.

Ubersupersloth

Depending on how “right” they are, possibly quite well. The right *really* don’t like immigrants.

Ubersupersloth

So the difference is the message itself and not the way it is delivered?

karl

Nice to see that you do take a stance on this issue. What you said is pretty much what went through my head in the last weeks. I wasn't exactly expecting Nintendo and Microsoft to react in a strong enough way I would have liked to see, but to see such a weak reaction is sad, but tells us at least exactly how much you can trust them with anything.

Davsau

Unfortunately, I think a lot of it is just trolling more than a valid marketing ploy. For a lot of Trump supporters (not all, admittedly) the cruelty, and getting a reaction from it, is the point. They imagine stereotypical, pearl clutching liberals screaming and crying when they see these stupid posts. The momentary high of hurting people they hate is the point. It’s childish and petty, but shouldn’t be surprising at this juncture, and makes Microsoft’s and others’ complicity more damning.

Second Wind

Better to leave space for people to actually talk than just give the trolls more space.

Nidarom

Great video, and love to see this being echoed. I watch most of Second Wind content to get my mind off of how depressing the rise of authoritarianism is, but I still don't want to see the topic being avoided. And that's a tough thing to balance but Second Wind has done a fantastic job on balancing talking about the rise of fascism, with keeping coverage on games. You guys rock, keep on doing the things you're doing!

Markus Jaeger

This is already way past slippery slope

Second Wind

I am currently writing an essay about balls... so the balance is real. - Nick

Ubersupersloth

I think you might have been a bit overzealous with the cleaning since I’m pretty sure you shadowbanned me and if you read my comments it should be pretty clear that I’m not trolling.

Evan

No ubersupersloth you just aren’t adding anything to the conversation here as far as I can tell and that’s why nobody has further responded to you. No need to go on some crusade about the injustice of you being shadow banned by SW.

Ubersupersloth

Oh, no. Here makes sense. The conversations naturally dried up here. The comments here have been pretty cool, actually. I thought the operative difference between corporations showing pride flags and stuff for profit and corporations not railing against the government for…I’ll generously call it “dicey” usage of their IP was the way it was done. It turns out it was the stuff that was being supported. I’m still a little lost on the “if it was calling European immigrants inhuman” thing because I live in the UK and the right-wingers hate European immigrants plenty.

Anders Carlson

The difference is whether game creators are putting the message into their own games voluntarily (or possibly because their corporate bosses think it'll make them money, in the case of the less sincere inclusion of Pride imagery, but still as part of their own creative process) or whether the government is co-opting the imagery for their own hateful propaganda without any permission from the creators, while the corporate overlords who are in a position to object do nothing.

Ubersupersloth

The voluntary/creative process stuff is fair enough. With creative industries being so left-wing anyway, it would likely be rare for a creative to be pressured/forced to include progressive imagery they don’t agree with. I’m trying to picture the reverse situation and see if the views on what are good and not are consistent. Say 10 years ago the prevailing norm of society were conservative and CEOs put pressure/game creators decided to include “back the blue” flags or, I dunno, traditional Mormon wife characters. Then, in the modern day, a progressive government uses the likeness of one of those hypothetical Mormon characters to say “Trans Rights” and the transphobic developers chose not to object out of fear of reprisal. Laying it out like that, yeah, I can see how the second one is worse. There’s an element of fear/coercion that’s just kind of gross, IMO.

George Dorn

It's because you're a step ahead. The companies want you to believe that their progressive messaging is to indicate that they have progressive values, and you should buy from them if you agree. In reality, this is virtue signaling in the most distilled, pure form - signalling with zero virtue. So, yeah, these two things are identical, it's just a bit startling for people who didn't see that there was no virtue in that signal.

E_R_51

Long time lurker, first time supporter. Thanks for speaking up.

Second Wind

They always say it's a joke until they actually try to normalize it. Everything about Trump was a joke, until it wasn't.

HotPink Crowded Hippopotamus

Just so you guys know I am going to increase my Patreon Membership tier here as a direct response to this video. This is what real journalism should look like! Integrity above all else. Please continue to do a stellar job!

HotPink Crowded Hippopotamus

I feel like those numbers can be weaponized. Trump fired the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics so that numbers can be easily manipulated. Some more compliant outlets can inflate and deflate the numbers as they please as there are way less oversight. All of this to say even if we have any marketing data, they can increase the numbers to sounds like it's an overwhelming success

Jakob Hjorth Hansen

You can't see the difference between "we support x in their right to exist without haressment" and "immigrants are a parasitic organism that needs to be destroyed"? Apart from the difference between a private entity and a friggin government with police, agents and soldiers, how can "be nice to people even if they are different" be equated to "these people are vermin/parasites/cancer" in your optics!?

Ubersupersloth

They’re both political views backed by unprovable moral axioms. The only way they can be judged is subjectively and I try to stay objective when I can. If you’re asking my personal opinion, I disagree with the “immigrants are parasites and need to be purged” rhetoric more than the equality, inclusion etc rhetoric. Even if the “parasite” thing were true (which statistics show it tends not to be), a government’s job should involve helping people. That’s what it supposedly exists to do. But, again, that’s just my personal opinion.

Jakob Hjorth Hansen

Okay, thats good. I guess the principal discussion about whether there is a difference when a private entity makes a political message/stance vs government using IP from the private entity for political purposes fades into the background when the message sent is taken directly from Germany in the 1930s. That at least is my primary takeaway

Tim Wilson

Respect. I love that you’re actually taking a firm and consistent stance on this throughout all of your content. It’s refreshing and reassuring. Unfortunately, there’s historical parallels here and they’re the obvious ones, but it’s worth noting. People like Jaime and others who applaud some right wing fuckery but are aghast here need to learn the lesson that people keep learning and forgetting. You do not pick and choose what part of fascism you get, and it does not care about you as soon as it’s convenient. It’s going to be a fascinating night of long knives this time.

Pēteris Krišjānis

I agree any benefits are questionable, however it is good to ask - where is red line for companies regarding dehumanisation? Is everything accepted? So why I should pay for products which money will be used to kill millions?

J.S. Majer

One of the things we've seen in the DHS ads is things using or invoking Nazi imagery. If you didn't know what you were looking at, you might not know it, but it's transparent if you do. I suggest something similar is going on here. It's not about recruitment in the strictest sense of the term. Some, probably large, portion of the population is not going to recognize what it is. But it is mean to communicate to gamers, the sort of frequently online, willing to war for them people, a sort of "we're one of you" message. It's not about getting Chad to sign up; it's about getting Morty not to give him shit about it.

Jadedrakerider

Wow -- I had not heard about this. This is just 100% on brand.

Sardeed

People illegally somewhere should get out, end of story. Either come legally in a country or get kicked out, really not a hard concept to understand. Now, destroying the support for criminals is all fine in my opinion, maybe stop doing crime if you want to be seen as human. How would you react if people go into your home and some eat some of your food, others just sleep on your couch, then a couple still some of your stuff or vandalize your house and some go and fuck murder the rest of your family. Would you go "don't judge those poor people not all of them are bad!" or would you make sure NOBODY gets in your home without invitation?

Sardeed

Normally I would say you are right but we are talking about criminals.

Jakob Hjorth Hansen

If they do it because you (The US) repeatedly invaded their home, kicked around the furniture and set fire to their roof because you didn't like the color they were painting it, or just sponsor a gang to come by and break the windows, so they need to relocate because their house isn't really fit for living in, your argument loose some strength.

Ubersupersloth

Agreed. You can’t be mad at someone for committing a crime if their only “legal” options suck. Plus, legal and moral are not always the same thing.